


a usurping daughter

by bookbug99



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Divergence-Season Four, Character Study, F/F, F/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-13
Updated: 2017-11-13
Packaged: 2019-02-01 21:44:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12713523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookbug99/pseuds/bookbug99
Summary: Growing up, everyone always said that Eleanor would take her father’s place. Pirate captains, merchants, businessmen: they looked at the Guthries and their empire and said, “Someday the girl will rule this island.”Her father always laughed and said, “Eleanor will be the best leader this island has ever seen.”Eleanor sacrifices everything in the name of power. (An alternate look at Eleanor’s season four storyline.)





	a usurping daughter

She has no memory of her mother. Felicity Guthrie was a kind woman, a gentlewoman who abandoned London for a wild island, a mother who loved her daughter. She was respected by the citizens of Nassau, mourned by her estranged relatives, and buried in an overrun cemetery in the interior.

Eleanor has only seen one photograph of her mother, taken when she was a child. In the photo, which is stained sepia, her mother is unsmiling and appears uncomfortable in stifling clothes. Yet she is still the most beautiful woman in the world. As a little girl, Eleanor used to examine the photograph, trying to find similarities between the ghost of her mother and herself. Did they share the same eyes, the same nose, the same crinkled expression?

Everyone always said Eleanor looked like her father. They were one and the same, Richard and Eleanor. But she wanted to know how her mother had made her, too. In the end Felicity Guthrie’s greatest impact on her only daughter was her absence.

Eleanor knows little about her mother and what she does is from stories her father has told her. She does not know which of these stories are truths and which are exaggerations. But she knows that her parents loved each other so much they were willing to run away to the West Indies. She knows that her father mourns her mother deeply, that he is a shattered wreck of the man he once was. She knows that her mother desperately wanted a child, and treasured Eleanor with all her heart.

Eleanor wishes she could have grown up with a mother, someone to teach her the ways of the world. But instead she had no mother and an absent father, and grew into a wild girl.

***  
Nassau is her home and her birthright. Eleanor knows every inch of this island, from the tides of the beach to the Lascars praying for forgiveness to the fortress held by pirate captains. The island is buried in her bones.

She remembers growing up here, one of the few little girls on the island. She learned to play on the beach, drawing her name in the sand with sticks washed from ashore. She hid behind shopkeepers’ stalls and pretended to set off the cannons in the fortress and picked coconuts off of palm trees to feed the frigatebirds.

Eleanor recalls playing in the Guthrie warehouse, sitting on top of stacked boxes filled with spices and ale, hiding behind stacks of hay, and messing with iron wheels and sailing equipment. Her father would always yell at her to get off the supplies, and Eleanor always ignored him. Growing up she spent as much time in the warehouse as she did at home.

When she was very young, Eleanor would play with another little girl around her age. Madi, Mr. Scott’s daughter. They would make castles on the island and eat peaches together and make up fantastical stories, pretending to be queens and princesses. She loved having another friend, especially on an island where there were hardly any children. But when Eleanor was five, Madi and her mother left the island while Mr. Scott stayed behind.

Growing up, everyone always said that Eleanor would take her father’s place. Pirate captains, merchants, businessmen: they looked at the Guthries and their empire and said, “Someday the girl will rule this island.”

Her father always laughed and said, “Eleanor will be the best leader this island has ever seen.”  
***  
“Teach is returning,” Solomon says one morning when Eleanor arrives at the pub. The pub is the place where social life in Nassau lives: here gossip is exchanged, trade is made, relationships are built and torn apart. She spends time here to make certain that the island is running well. If there are issues, Eleanor needs to know before it impacts the business and trade.

“Teach?” Eleanor says. She sits beside him on one of the creaky barstools. The bartender, whose name is Pliny, gives her a wink; Eleanor is barely seventeen and certainly not legal to drink but everyone knows her father so it is brushed aside.

“His crew is returning,” Solomon says, “and there are rumors that he gonna try and start a revolution.”

“Shit,” is all Eleanor says. This island has been peaceful for the last half-decade, after tumult and destruction following the Spanish invasion a decade ago that killed her mother. They have maintained trade, and the return of pirate rebellion will send the entire system crashing to pieces. This island cannot collapse, it has a storied history beginning with Avery’s arrival. Pirate rebellion means the destruction of her family’s livelihood. “When do they arrive?”

“Supposedly three days,” Solomon says. He takes another swig of ale and gestures to the bartender for more.

Eleanor needs a plan, except she doesn’t have one. She spends the rest of the afternoon interviewing customers: Mrs. Mapleton; McCowan, the owner of the coffin-shop; Kennedy, who works as a spy in her father’s employ; and Roswell, who works for Hornigold at the fortress. All of them confirm the same thing: Teach is returning to Nassau.

She tells her father at dinner that night. Richard Guthrie looks up from his soup and says, “This is not your problem, Eleanor.”

“Yes, it is,” Eleanor demands, clanking her spoon against the porcelain bowl. The china was her mother’s, transported from England to the Indies. “If we don’t do something this island is going to fall apart. You know what Teach does. He’s a murderer and he doesn’t care about anything except destruction and hurting others.”

Her father says, “I’d hardly say he’s someone to fear. After all, he supposedly has a nasty habit of remaining unfaithful to his wives, all eight of them.”

“And the rumor is he kills his wives, all of them, when they don’t bear him a son,” Eleanor says. “Please, Father, this is dangerous. We need to protect the business and make certain that trade isn’t destroyed with his arrival.”

“That is my problem to worry about and not yours,” her father says. He takes another drink of wine from a goblet.

Mr. Scott, who has remained silent beside her father, says, “Eleanor’s worry is not unfounded. Teach has created a sense of fear across these islands. If he returns, the fear will remain in Nassau. No one wants to become his victim.” Eleanor nods in agreement, gesturing her spoon in Scott’s direction.

“This is not your problem,” her father repeats again, “and I would behoove you to stay out of crucial business matters.”

Eleanor ignores him and drinks more watered-down wine.

Teach arrives on a stormy July morning, where the wind is whipping across the beach. Eleanor stands on a balcony and watches: he has three ships, each heavily outfitted and armed, and what appear to be hundreds of men scurry off the mast carrying boxes of goods. There is a silence that has come upon the street, as though everyone is waiting for an explosion to come. Later, Eleanor waits in the warehouse while her father processes the supplies: dozens of guns and artillery, spices from exotic locations, silver and gold and the finest silk in the western hemisphere.

“This is certainly a haul,” is all her father says. Eleanor needs a plan, and she needs one quickly.

Confronting Teach is impossible – he is surrounded at all times by armed pirate guards – but perhaps she can convince his crew to rebel. Mutiny against even the most famed captains isn’t unheard of on these islands.

The best solution is to find an easily manipulated crew member who will turn against his captain and then convince the rest of Teach’s men to reject their leader.

And that’s how Eleanor meets Charles Vane.  
***  
Charles Vane is confident and overtly muscled and convinced that he’s destined for greatness. He wears his hair in long braids, always wears a shell necklace, and worships Teach. According to the intel Eleanor has gathered, Vane sees Teach like a mentor, making him even more susceptible to manipulation. He’s said to be brutal and willing to sacrifice anything to survive. No one knows his past; he simply joined Teach’s crew one day.

She finds him in the pub, sitting alone surrounded by a cloud of smoke. Eleanor pulls up a stool beside him and waits until Vane notices her. When he does, he sets down his pipe and grunts out, “What the fuck do you want?”

“I don’t believe we’ve been introduced,” Eleanor says. “My name is Eleanor Guthrie. My father”--

“Your father is a thief,” Charles Vane says, “stealing money from good-working crews.” Eleanor does not disagree. She sighs and leans forward, making sure to expose her assets.

“I understand that you’re new to this island,” Eleanor says. “Are you enjoying Nassau?”

Charles Vane sighs again. Up close, he is even more stunning. “I’d appreciate it if you’d stop asking me fucking questions,” is all he says.

“Tis a shame that I’ll keep asking,” Eleanor says. “And before you start to threaten my family again, you should know that the Guthries run half of this entire island and can and will destroy our enemies. A pleasure meeting you, Charles.” She stands up and walks away, leaving him sitting there in disbelief.

Eleanor turns around to see Charles Vane staring at her in a display of admiration, and grins. Perfect.

She spends the next few weeks talking to Charles Vane whenever she can. She asks him about the Ranger’s hauls (“We spent a month floating in the middle of the universe”) and about Teach (“He’s the smartest fucker I know”) and about his plans for the future (“Someday, I want to captain my own ship”). He does not speak about his past or his family. Eleanor knows pirates shed their identities to become someone brand new.

Vane is smart, confident, and egotistical. He’s convinced he will run this island one day.

Eleanor tells Charles about her family, too: her mother, killed in the Spanish raid, her father, who is grieving for a woman he lost a decade ago. They form a connection, a friendship, trading stories back and forth while getting drunk enough to forget their names. Eleanor will admit that she finds Charles attractive, but she needs to focus on the plan: convincing him to betray Teach.

And well, if she has to make him fall in love with her to succeed, Eleanor doesn’t mind.

They kiss for the first time in a shadowed corner inside the fortress. Eleanor is standing against the steel door of the fortress, ready to leave, and Charles looks at her for a long moment. There is a sense of electricity and she realizes, this is the moment. It happens in an instant -- a pregnant pause and then a collision.

And Eleanor grins, because this is victory.

They fuck in the fortress, in hidden rooms, in her office; they lean against windows and Eleanor laughs and laughs and laughs as he kisses her. Charles Vane looks at her like she hung the moon, and she grins: because her plan is one step closer to completion.

(She does not think about if she loves Charles, too. She cannot spare time to think of such trivial things.)

“This island deserves a new beginning,” Charles says one morning. The light in her bedroom is shining through the open window, and the day has just begun. Eleanor leans her head against his shoulder and exhales. She stares back towards Charles and watches the way he looks at her. “For you and me,” he finishes, placing a kiss to her temple.

***

When Teach flees the island, Eleanor stands on a balcony and watches. She feels a sense of satisfaction watching him run as far away from Nassau as possible. She stays until the ships are gone, until their sails are no longer visible in the distance. Her father stands next to her and says with a sense of surprise, “Well, Eleanor, you did it, didn’t you.”

She is the ruler of this island.

***  
Eleanor sits at her desk, looking through the latest reports from the warehouse. There have been accidents aboard the accounts recently, ships lost due to maelstrom. They need to keep the bottom line intact. There is a knock on the door, and Eme enters.

“Madam Guthrie,” Eme says, “there is a man here to see you.”

There’s always a man here to see me, Eleanor thinks. Her father, Mr. Scott, one of the captains. Charles, who keeps sending her letters, who might actually be in love with her. (Eleanor has no time for trivial things such as love with a man she manipulated into falling for her.)

The door opens, and it is Captain Flint. He looks exhausted, his beard crunchy with dried blood, his skin sallow. Eleanor drops her quill and runs to the door, throwing her arms around him. Flint pauses for a moment, and then hugs her back.

Eleanor hasn’t seen him in four months, since the last time the Walrus left for a voyage. She missed him.

She met Captain Flint when she was fourteen, around the same time that he started gaining power on Nassau and she began helping her father with the business. He’s one of the most revered captains on the island, known for his military strength and naval tactics, but also one of the most ruthless -- he destroys his enemies without a second thought.

Flint met her when she was young and offered to teach her about sailing. “If you ever want to join a crew,” he said, “the Walrus is always open to you.” Mostly he is like a father figure to her, in some ways a kinder father than Eleanor’s own; always there to offer advice and help with the business when he is on the island.

“How was the trip?” Eleanor asks. The two of them move towards the window, and she sits in her seat while Flint pulls up a chair in front of the desk.

“Good, all things considered,” Flint says. “We managed a decent haul and didn’t suffer any major casualties.”

“How long will you stay?”

“Probably a month or so. Gates claims he’s got another lead on a haul in Nevis with enough tobacco to make us rich.”

“Tobacco prices have increased,” Eleanor says, “and they’re going for a dollar more. If you bring back enough, you’ll get a good reward.”

“Noted,” Flint says. He seems exhausted, and rubs his eyes. “How is everything here?”

Eleanor considers. This morning she had to break up a fight between two unruly captains, but the rest of the week has been going well, all things considered. You learn to pick your battles. And the world hasn’t fallen apart, yet. “Fairly well. There’s a lot of infighting among the captains. Hornigold and Lawrence keep arguing about the fortress security and all sorts of nonsense. I’ve figured the best solution is just to let them work their shit out on their own.”

That makes Flint crack into a smile. “You’re clever enough for your own good, Eleanor,” he says.

She smiles. “Thank you.”

“My offer still stands,” Flint says. “Anytime you want to learn to sail, come find me. We can show you how to be a captain that doesn’t act like an areshole.”

Eleanor laughs. “Thank you.”

Flint pushes his chair back and stands up. “I need to return to my crew to make certain they aren’t all trying to kill each other. Please stay safe, Eleanor.”

“I know,” Eleanor says. She grins again. She really missed Flint, even with his gruffness and constant worry that something bad will happen. He is her favorite captain on this island. Eleanor knows how to protect herself, but she’s thankful for all his support. And she worries about him, too: every homecoming is a grateful relief.

***  
Max is sensual and daring and one of the bravest people Eleanor has ever known. She lets people into her world and then lures them away; she knows how to manipulate everyone with a few choice words; and she knows how to use her voice like a siren.

She is smart, too: one of the smartest people on this island, relegated behind the scenes. Eleanor has always known that she loves men and women alike. Falling in love with Max is not a surprise, it is an inevitability.

“Eleanor,” Max says one day, “where would we run off to?”

“Somewhere far away,” Eleanor says. She imagines running to the Americas, where supposedly there are pots of gold hidden in fountains of youth. Or Libertalia, the secret African kingdom, where pirates live in harmony. Maybe they should run towards the Continent, towards Spain and Portugal and England, change their names and start a new life. “Somewhere beautiful.”

“I have always wanted to go somewhere where there is winter,” Max says. “A place with seasons. Here we only have endless summer.”

“What if we traveled to the Far East,” Eleanor says, “like they tell of in stories. We could see the merchants and the mountains there.”

“I have never seen a mountain before,” Max says. She snuggles closer against Eleanor’s shoulder. They do not have much longer. Soon they will both need to return to their responsibilities.

“Mountains are beautiful, from the drawings in books,” Eleanor says. “Especially in wintertime. I think I would like to see a volcano, someday.”

“You wouldn’t be afraid of an explosion, ma cherie?” Max asks. When she is around Eleanor, she drops the facade, lets her accent fade.

“No,” Eleanor says. “I would like to travel anywhere, I think.”

“Anywhere?” Max asks.

Eleanor nods. She stares at the ceiling, the way light dances across the wood. “As long as I was with you.”

Max leans over and kisses her, and they stay like that, locked in their own private universe.  
***

Here is the truth: Eleanor and Charles Vane know how to hurt each other. That is love. Maybe that is the only kind of love they know how to give each other. The only way they know how to express affection.

So they will keep on hurting one another.

***

“Eleanor,” her father says, “come to my office, please.” Eleanor sighs and follows him inside. It has been a few weeks since she saved Max and irreparably lost her reputation on the island. She does not care. It was in the name of protecting Max from the horrors of the Ranger crew.

“We need to discuss a rebuilding strategy,” he says. “How are you going to regain the support and trust of our investors.”

“Currently, they have no support or trust in us,” Eleanor says.

“That is why we must regain our reputation,” her father says. He sighs. “Eleanor, do you not understand this? Because of your rash, irrational choices, a business that I have spent my entire life building -- one that your mother and I sacrificed everything for -- has fallen apart.”

“They were not rash or irrational,” Eleanor snaps back. She can feel her pressure rising. “They were trying to hurt someone that I care about. Father, they were raping her”--

“It does not matter,” her father says. “That woman is a whore, and now you have sacrificed our entire future for her.”

“Because I didn’t want to watch her get hurt? How can you not realize that I was trying to protect her, or are you too wrapped up in your own selfishness to care about anyone else’s feelings?” Eleanor slams her hand against the desk. It shakes from the pressure. Richard Guthrie rubs his beard, which has become overgrown.

“Your mother would say the same thing if she was here,” he says. “She believed the most important thing for our family was creating the Guthrie empire. And she was willing to sacrifice everything in order to create that empire. And now you have thrown it all away, Eleanor.”

She cannot take this anymore. Eleanor stands up, letting the chair scrape behind her. “It doesn’t matter what she would say,” she says, her voice a righteous rage of fury. “Because she isn’t here.”

She turns to walk out of the room. As Eleanor leaves, blinking back tears, she can hear her father calling her name.

She keeps walking.

***

Eleanor replays that conversation over and over and over again, weeks later, when she finds her father’s body.

Richard Guthrie, ruler of New Providence Island, is lying there in the dirt. His body has already begun to decay, his eyes are sheltered with dirt, his bones are visible. This is the end of his empire. This is not a befitting burial for a man who transformed this island from nothing into a powerhouse.

Charles Vane is angry at Eleanor and so he took revenge against her in the worst possible way. Eleanor never wanted to watch her father die, no matter how often they clashed.

She kneels before him, sobbing, and thinks: This is all my fault. I’m so sorry, Father.

***

She has never been in the ocean before, until Eleanor is aboard a ship that will take her to England.

She is placed in a jail cell aboard the ship, which amounts to a cramped cabin below-decks. Twice a day, a man comes in to inspect the cuffs around her feet and hands. Three times a day, she receives the leftover remains of the ships’ meals. The ship is staffed by British soldiers, standing strong and valiant in their red uniforms. They glare at her, call her names. Everyone has heard the story of the pirates, and Eleanor Guthrie is a living example of their tyranny.

Eleanor is not used to the sea. Flint told her so many times he would teach her to sail, but that never came to fruition. At night, her body shakes. During the day, she can only think of their faces. Max’s face, scared and alone, trapped inside a tent. Anne Bonny’s face as she shredded eight men to pieces. Charles’ face, stained with soot and raging with fury, watching her as she carried Abigail Ashe to safety. Flint’s face covered in blood raging a war against Charlestown.

But most of all, Eleanor remembers her father’s face: shadowed in sand and lifeless.

That is how she spends her first sea voyage, lost and alone, willing herself not to cry as the boat rolls over the tides.

This is what she deserves, Eleanor thinks.

***  
The trial is scheduled for a month after her arrival. Eleanor has never been to England before. All she knows is from stories her father told her, about his childhood. He talked about how summer in England consists of scorching heat and torrential rain, and the English focus on gentility.

She looks out the window of the carriage, and sees ancient buildings. Women walking by in tightly-knitted corsets, pigeons flying overhead, the last remnants of winter snow melting along cobblestone paths. England is so dreary and gray, made on brick and stone, compared to Nassau’s multicolored skies and swaying palm trees. At home, the scent of the sea is visible from all directions. England has a river, not an ocean: the Thames, which is just as gray as the rest of the city and smells of pollution. London’s skies are not clear like Nassau’s: they are foggy with smoke rising from chimneys.

This is another world. This is a world her parents chose to escape. Eleanor is a foreigner in a distant land, trapped in a prison that she has made.

Her family may be gentility, but Eleanor has never been: she grew up in the West Indies, a world away. England is just as foreign to her as it is to the pirates.

She is sent to a prison called Newgate on the outskirts of the city. It is dilapidated, with a leaking roof and shattered stones. The inside smells like rot and decay. There is no light inside of her cell, save for a broken window. The only view outside is that of a courtyard overrun with grass and dead dandelions. Eleanor sleeps on a broken mattress and is not allowed to read or write.

Due to the high publicity surrounding her trial, she is not allowed to associate with other prisoners.

Instead, Eleanor is trapped in a cold room alone. Periodically, police come into the room to interview her. They ask about Nassau, about the Guthrie empire, about her father’s sudden and tragic death. They ask if she has solicited illegal materials. They ask if she has been faithful to God.

Eleanor answers these questions truthfully, because that is the only way she will survive. The constables take notes. She overhears the guards talking about how her trial has made newspaper headlines: HEIRESS TO BE EXECUTED FOR PIRACY. The trial is expected to draw tens of thousands of people, eager to watch her die.

Eleanor wonders and worries about everyone back home. Has the island collapsed without a sense of trade? Have Max and Anne and Jack managed to keep it afloat? Is Flint’s crew safe as they fight a rebellion? Does Charles Vane have any regrets for what he has done? Have the people of Nassau heard about her trial and cast their heads down in shame?

“Miss Guthrie,” one of the constables asks, “do you feel any shame for the decisions you have made?”

Eleanor looks at the balding constable. She looks out the window towards the overrun courtyard. She looks at her torn dress, shredded during the voyage across the Atlantic. She is terrified of dying.

“No,” she says in a clear voice that rings across the cavernous cell.

***  
Woodes Rogers finds her.

Eleanor has begun to spend her days crafting elaborate fairy tales. Stories where she runs away with Max, to fantastical pirate kingdoms and forbidden new worlds. Stories where her parents never left England, and she grew up as a doting child raised in Mayfair. Stories where Mr. Scott’s daughter, Madi, never left Nassau and so Eleanor grew up with a best friend.

Some days she imagines the most unthinkable of stories: living in a world where men don’t control her every decision. Charles, Flint, her father, Mr. Scott: so many men.

Other days she imagines stories where she is not trapped alone in prison.

There is a knock on the door, and Eleanor looks up. She expects it to be yet another police officer ready to take her statement, or one of the few journalists that has been authorized to enter the cell for an interview. Instead, the man standing before her is sandy-haired and dressed in a pristine red coat over a banyan. This man is clearly someone of high rank in the British military.

“You are Eleanor Guthrie, correct?” the man says.

Eleanor nods.

“My name is Woodes Rogers,” the man says. He extends a hand, and Eleanor blinks at this sign of intimacy. “I am the new governor of New Providence Island.”

“Nassau has another British governor?” Eleanor asks, surprised. There hasn’t been a governor on Nassau for decades, not since the Spanish fleet was expelled from the island thirty years ago. Since then the island has remained primarily self-run, outside the boundaries of governments and borders.

It is not a surprise that the British are returning. It will always be in the British self-interest to prevent piracy for the sake of economy and trade.

Woodes Rogers finds a seat on a bench. Eleanor is shivering in the cold. She has slowly begun to fall apart over the course of five months in prison: after all, that is the point of imprisonment, to break criminals down to the point of death. It makes execution far easier. “I have a proposal for you,” he says.

“I am not interested,” Eleanor says.

“You haven’t even heard what I have to say,” Rogers says.

“I am guilty of my crimes,” Eleanor says. “I willingly admit that. I conspired with the pirates and there is evidence showing my involvement. I am not interested in asking for forgiveness or praying to God or writing letters to people who support me. I have accepted my fate.”

“Well.” Rogers shifts slightly. “That is admirable indeed. I have heard stories about you, Eleanor. Before I became governor I worked as an admiral in the British Navy. We heard stories about Nassau, the victories you gave that island, the way it became a place for commerce and trade.”

Victories that were all in vain, Eleanor thinks. She snaps, “What exactly is your proposal?”

With a hint of ego, Woodes Rogers smiles. He reaches into his pocket to pull out a crumpled sheet of parchment and hands it to her. Eleanor’s eyes quickly scan the page, and she stops.

“A full pardon for the crimes committed against the British Empire by Eleanor Guthrie,” she reads, examining each cursive-drawn letter with a finger. “Effective immediately. Please sign here.” She shakes her head in disbelief. This cannot be true. There must be a catch of some sort, a trap woven into the pardon; England does not give up its prisoners easily. Eleanor hands the pardon back to the governor.

“As you can see,” Woodes Rogers continues, “I have an excellent proposal. I hope you’ll consider signing it. As the notarized pardon states, you will be freed and pardoned for all your accused crimes.”

“I don’t believe this,” Eleanor says.

“It was signed by myself, the under secretary to the navy, and an esteemed judge. It is legally binding. All you need to do is sign the paper.” Rogers reaches inside his jacket for a quill.

“There must be a catch here,” Eleanor says. “I know enough about the British empire to know that they will never sacrifice one of their prisoners. My trial has been written about halfway across the sea and thousands of people are supposed to come to this hanging. That’s publicity that the military will not want to give up. And I’ve spent enough time reading ship contracts to understand that legally binding is not the same as permanent.”

“Fair enough,” Rogers says. “The second part of this pardon is that you are an esteemed member of Nassau’s gentry.” (Eleanor almost laughs at the idea of Nassau having a gentry.) “You are well-respected by the pirates and townspeople alike. You are one of the few people who understands the system of commerce your father created. And you have a wealth of experience with Nassau having grown up on the island. Therefore, we would like you to work for the British Navy.”

“How would I work for the Navy?” Eleanor asks.

“You would provide us with intel,” Rogers says. “Help us make connections with pirate crews and citizens alike. You would help us integrate the military onto the island for a smooth transition.”

What he is really saying, Eleanor realizes, is: you will betray everyone you have ever known.

She thinks about it. Nassau is her home, the only home she has ever known. The people on the island raised her into the woman she is. She cannot bear to think of betraying them, to work for the cause that the Guthrie family has spent their entire life championing against.

But here is the truth: Eleanor follows power. She follows people who are powerful and have political influence. That was the whole reason she seduced Charles Vane in the first place: he had the power to remove Teach from the island. Flint had power, Max had power. She follows power, and right now the pirates are losing all their power on the island. Siding with England would be the better choice in the long term.

She needs to think about the long-term consequences of her decisions. And surely the pirates will understand.

“Of course,” Rogers says, “if you do not sign this pardon, you will remain in prison and be sentenced to death.”

Eleanor wants power.

So she makes her choice.

***  
She is given a new set of clothes, fashionable dresses made of the finest silks. She wears her hair in long, loose waves. She learns to speak more professionally, to have a sense of decorum. She does not swear or drink foolishly.

She must be the model image of a perfect British woman: sweet and docile.

Eleanor looks at herself in the mirror and sees someone brand new.

***  
The island, when she returns, is far different to the one Eleanor remembers leaving.

Nassau is now filled with British soldiers, standing at the ready in their redcoats, rifles hanging from their sides. Military encampments have been set up along the beach and the fortress is fully armed and ready for an attack at any moment. The townspeople’s fear shines on their faces. It as though the island has completely transformed.

Eleanor stands in the fortress and watches her island from below. This is what is best for Nassau, she convinces herself. It must be protected from the pirates from all costs.

In the distance, ships sail home.

***  
Here is the truth: Eleanor loves Charles Vane. But she loves him in the wrong sort of way, a dark way between the shadow and the soul. They cannot ever truly let go of one another. She knows that he loves her, but she must let him go.

Besides, she can’t love a pirate and also be a perfect civilized woman.

***

When she sees Charles hanging, Eleanor’s heart collapses. Charles is standing against the pillory, ready to die, but he does not look afraid. He looks strong and confident.

She knows that he would sacrifice anything -- even his own life -- to save the pirates.

She remembers the day that they first met, the way he accused her father of being a thief. She remembers the way he said her name, Eleanor, with so much love. She remembers the letters he writes to her, letters of longing, I love you more than the rest of the world. She remembers the way he used to laugh after they fucked.

But Eleanor remembers her father's’ dead face. She remembers the look on Abigail Ashe’s face and the way Max looked after she was released from the tent. She cannot forgive him.

But she loves him, Eleanor realizes. How horrible: to only realize you love someone when they are about to die. Selfishly, she does not want to watch him die. She wants to run forward and release the rope, which is impossible.

Charles stands before everyone and does not make a confession. He does not apologize. Instead, he gives the pirates a victory. He tells them to keep fighting. He says, We are many, they are few.

Eleanor watches every moment of the speech. The rope is placed around his neck. She cannot look away. She realizes that Charles is looking her directly in the eye. Eleanor bites back tears and stares back.

She watches him until his body falls slack, until the rope is removed, until the crowd is gone and the executors carry his body away. Only when he is gone does Eleanor let herself break down.  
This island deserves a new beginning, for you and me, Charles Vane once told her.

***  
When she kisses Rogers, it is nothing: there is no passion.

Eleanor looks up and sees him nod, and understands: they must work together. It is for their mutual self-interest.

***  
There is a threadbare wedding, and then Eleanor becomes a wife. Her days become managing the island and spending days with the soldier's’ wives. British women are civilized. They do not swear and they do not drink and they prefer to sew quilts and discuss military gossip.

It makes Eleanor want to scream. But this is the life she has built for herself, so she must sacrifice.

She finds Max, one of her few former allies who still supports her. Max is sitting at the desk that was once Eleanor’s, with a royal poise. Max has changed, Eleanor realizes: she’s wearing elegant clothes and has finally gotten the power she has craved for so long.

A small part of Eleanor is jealous, that Max is happy with her power. That she doesn’t feel trapped and stifled by being a powerful woman.

“Eleanor,” Max says.

Eleanor bows.

“Why are you bowing?” Max says. Her accent becomes thicker. They are both playing roles here.

“It’s what civilized women are supposed to do,” Eleanor explains. Max gives her a look and she says, “Yes, I know. Fuck that. But it’s what I need to do.”

“It must be difficult being a wife,” Max says. She does not look at Eleanor, and instead begins to leaf through documents.

“It’s been nice,” Eleanor says. She is trying more to convince herself than Max. “I am very lucky, of course. I have a wonderful husband and we are working hard to remove the pirates from this island, as God intended.”  
“Of course,” Max says with only a hint of irony.

“You understand, of course,” Eleanor says. “We have to do whatever it takes to keep this island civilized.”

“You can say that,” Max says. “I work to protect this island and its people. Right now, that means helping the navy. Who knows what protection will mean in another year.”

“Max,” Eleanor says, “I am so grateful for all your support.”

Max finally snaps and says, “You’re grateful for all my support? You don’t even sound like Eleanor anymore. The Eleanor I knew would never have acted this way.”

“Max,” Eleanor says, softer.

“Sometimes I think about where we would have run away to,” Max says. “To Africa or the Mediterranean or England. But we never did run away. And now you’re a perfectly civilized woman who’s given up all her power on this island. It is certainly a good thing that we stayed. I have a meeting. Excuse me.” Max picks up her papers and walks out of the office without another word.

Eleanor watches Max leave, and wishes she could turn back time.

***

When she sees James Flint for the first time in nearly a year, he looks surprised. They are standing in the fortress to prepare for an attack, and Eleanor has missed him. In spite of everything. Despite everything. She wants to hug him, but cannot, because they are now sworn enemies.

“Eleanor,” he says.

“Captain Flint,” Eleanor says, keeping her voice modulated.

“I see you are the queen of this island now,” Flint says. There is a small smile on his face when he says: “But of course, you always were.”

“Thank you,” Eleanor says. There is a moment of silence, and they watch the harbor. Then she says: “How far away will we have to aim in order to attack the nearest ships?”  
Flint examines the cannons and then suggests, “Around thirty to forty feet of distance should be approximately enough.”

Eleanor nods and calls to the artilleries, who begin to load the cannons.

“What do you think your father would say about what this island has become?” Flint says.

Eleanor thinks of her father’s grave, buried somewhere in the island’s interior. She never visits his gravestone anymore. “I think he would say it’s a fucking disaster.”

That makes Flint laugh, and Eleanor feels happy for the first time in weeks. “But he would understand. We need to protect the island from pirates for our own safety and the island’s future, as God’s will states.”

“God’s will,” Flint says, disbelieving. “I see.”

“I am happy,” Eleanor says. Her voice shakes, and she doesn’t sound convinced. She is happy, she thinks forcefully. She must be happy, otherwise this has all been for nothing. Flint looks at her for a long moment, and his face is devastated.

He finally says: “I hope you are happy, Eleanor. I hope you are proud of yourself. That is all I have ever wanted for you.”

They watch the harbor.

***

When Eleanor finds her husband’s dead body in the sand, she finally realizes: it was not enough.

Roger’s face is collapsed, his bones are beginning to decay, and his eyes are closed. She remembers finding her father's’ body, so many months ago. Maybe Eleanor’s whole life has always been leading towards finding the bodies of those she loves dead.

She sacrificed everything in the hope of a better future. A better future isn’t coming.

Everyone she loves is dead or hates her or betrayed her. Eleanor stares at the sky and lets herself cry.

Her father, saying: You have thrown it all away, Eleanor. The disappointment on Flint’s face, on Charles’ face, on Max’s face, on Madi’s face: the sense of shame they feel looking at her. The decisions she has made to hurt people, to hurt her island, all in the name of civilization and religious will.

Eleanor sacrificed everything so they would be enough. So that she would be powerful. So she could hold onto power.

But power is not worth betraying everyone. Power is not worth watching everyone you love die. Power isn’t worth fucking everything, power isn’t worth changing yourself into someone you’re not. She isn’t a queen anymore: she’s a scared girl who betrayed everyone she once loved. She failed at being a leader. She failed her island.

Civilization is not worth suffering. Civilization is not worth destruction and needless pain.

Eleanor wants to change her decisions. Shed the costume she has created, return to the days where she was the heiress to the Guthrie empire and not a civilized woman.

But Eleanor made her choice.

 


End file.
